As the Clark Cougars were wrapping up a long drive to take a 10-point lead with less than 10 minutes left Friday night, East Central coach Robert Walker turned to one of his assistants on the Hornets' sideline.

“All I said was, ‘Two scores wins the ballgame,'” Walker recalled, looking back at the 56-yard march that had chewed more than 5 minutes off the clock.

In the end, East Central (8-3) delivered, scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for a 35-31 victory over Clark (4-7) in a Class 5A Division II playoff game at Heroes Stadium.

After the Clark score by Branden Valle, the Hornets narrowed the margin to 31-28 on their only pass completion of the night, a 39-yard bomb from Jeremy Jones to Wanya Ward with 5:01 left.

The defense stopped Clark on three plays, then Russell Brown set up the game-winner with a 45-yard punt return to the Cougars' 10.

Chris Armstrong scored on the next snap to put the Hornets ahead for the first time.

“There was no panic,” said Armstrong, who also had touchdown runs of 3 and 35 yards and gained 130 yards on 18 carries.

“We kept on playing our game, kept putting our body and soul into every snap,” he said.

Johnathan Johnson, who alternated with Armstrong all night, had 136 yards on 22 attempts and also scored a touchdown as the Hornets simply kept opening cracks in the middle of the line for the speedy duo.

Clark also depended almost exclusively on the running game. Valle pounded the Hornets for 207 yards and three touchdowns, hitting inside and outside.

But in the end, it was East Central that prevailed on the ground.

“Our kids believe in our game plan, our coaches believe in our game plan,” Walker said. “We do what we do.”